I find it interesting that a
movie spoofing the zombie subgenre of horror is largely responsible for the
renaissance of the zombie flick. There have almost always been zombie movies.
The 1932 cult movie “White Zombie” starring Bela Lugosi is widely considered to
be the first zombie movie. The subgenre never really got incredibly popular until
George A. Romero laid down the rules of the zombie flick in 1968 with the cult
classic “Night of the Living Dead”. One of those rules was that zombies were
the perfect vehicles for social commentary.

The horror genre grew in
popularity from that point on and with it the zombie flick. Romero continued to
add to his creation with “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead”, the former
being considered one of the greatest horror films of all time and one of the
greatest social commentaries as well. Edgar Wright’s and Simon Pegg’s spoof
homage to Romero’s masterpiece is also cleverly a continuation of its ideas.
Romero criticized America’s consumerism by setting his movie in a shopping
mall. Pegg and Wright take Romero’s concept of the mindless sheep created by
such consumerism and place it in modern day London, where everyone has already
become zombies in their daily routines before anyone is even turned into an
actual zombie.

“Shaun of the Dead” follows
a couple days in the life of Shaun, a retail manager who sees people mindlessly
plodding through their routines on the bus to work, idiots entering the job
force as they remain oblivious to the world around them while they text on
their phones, and even falls so far into his own rut that his flatmate can’t
stop complaining and his girlfriend dumps him. Shaun is joined in his own
pastoral behavior by his best pal Ed, a burnout who spends his days playing
video games and not cleaning the apartment, and spends his evenings at the
local pub, the Winchester. The greatest concern in their lives is whether the
Winchester rifle mounted over the bar actually works or not.

Simon has other problems
that have become mundane in our modern times. His stepdad—“He’s not my
father!”—has never seemed to like him and he doesn’t care to connect either. He
can’t seem to remember simple holidays, like Mother’s Day, or to make
reservations at a real restaurant—as opposed to The Winchester—so he can give
his girlfriend a proper date.

Simon’s real problem is that
he’s content with his existence and has never found cause to make something
more of it. That is until a zombie plague begins to turn people into flesh
eating monsters. Because of the sheep like existence of modern life it takes a
while for anyone to notice that anything has changed. Even once the plague
becomes public knowledge, the difference between those infected and the normal
people is only a matter of the flesh eating detail. One of the film’s more
brilliant moments is when Simon brainstorms that his small group of survivors
can traverse a sea of zombies by merely acting like them.

The movie pokes a lot of fun
at some of the zombie rules established by Romero. Never have any heroes of
zombie movies had as easy a time defeating these creatures in mêlée combat as
the heroes do here. And, were talking about a bunch of slackers. While their
video gaming skills do help them to identify potential threats before they’re
surprised by them, it is the fact that they realize zombies actually hold very
few surprises that aids them the most. Zombies are slow moving and can be
defeated with a blow to the head. How hard can it be?

Perhaps the greatest success
of “Shaun of the Dead”, however, is the fact that it is not only a spoof but
also a genuine zombie flick. It has stakes. There are real emotions that the
characters must deal with despite cracking wise at half the things they’re
experiencing. The fates of Simon’s stepdad and mother each require heartfelt
sentiment. Simon has a dramatic arc throughout the events of the film ending
with legitimate catharsis. When he wins his girlfriend back, it’s earned. And,
the fate of Ed is nothing short of brilliant.

“Shaun of the Dead” is a film that adds value to the zombie feature
canon. It mocks what it loves in the way we all do in our lives. It uses humor
to avoid emotional outbreak until it no longer can. It stays true to the
traditions of zombie movies, from the classic detail of keeping the zombies
slow-moving, mindless threats of our own impending deaths, as well as
continuing Romero’s notions of horror as social commentary. You’ll laugh.
You’ll cry. You might even tinkle in your pants a little.

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About Me

Andrew D. WellsAndrew is a professionally trained actor and stage director. He was a reporter for the daily newspaper The Marshall Democrat-News. He has been critiquing film since Mr. Lucas released the first of his "Star Wars" prequels in 1999. His reviews can also be seen atMarshall Democrat-News